Villains

The real question is villains.  I have been watching the television series 'Smallville' and it is great to see the many forms of a villain.  I need to know these forms because my stories lack them.  I find portraying a villain is difficult for me, because I do not believe in evil.  I don't think that there is someone out there trying to kill people for fun unless they are very insane.  Which leads me to the deadly sins.  Villains are just people who are doing things that they think are right, they may be doing things to help people but they are deluded in some way.

Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath and Sloth.  Some of those are a little weak.  There is a modern version that goes along different lines, GMO, Experimenting on Humans, Polluting the Environment, Causing Social Injustice, Causing Poverty, Becoming Obscenely Wealthy, Taking Drugs.  Both lists have some merit and som do not.  Perhaps we should change them to Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Wrath, Causing Poverty and Causing Social Injustice.  Gluttony is imbodied in a few of these already as in anything taken to excess is gluttony.  Sloth could be letting anything bad of the above to happen when you could stop or slow them might be considered as a minor sin.  Genetically modifying stuff is neutral, unless it is a perversion or meant to cause harm, but would then fit into one of the ones above.  Experimenting on Humans also a gray area, experimenting on humans first before doing other lab examinations when there is time to do them is a crime for sure, but most drugs require human trials.  Taking Drugs see Gluttony.  Becoming Obscenely Wealthy by stepping on people and crushing others is covered already, but it is not a sin to become wealthy through work or chance.   Polluting the Environment is only a sin when it is encompassed by the other sins, otherwise driving a car is a sin as is using a cumputer, and breathing.

The television series shows us many villains who are Evil, but also those that are affected by the above sins.  Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy and Wrath.  They Cause Poverty and Social Injustice too.  But these are not the only villains.  Often the villain is within the person themselves.  Another is villains who are monsters who prey on humans for food; they are not evil, but are villains of the highest order.  Another common villain is the environment, where the foe is e natural world and the hero has to survive it, but again there is no evil there it is just what is— black holes do not kill because they're are evil, but because they are black holes.  Insert Avalanches, Winter, desserts, oceans etc. here.  

So what is a villain?  

In my game, The Nameless is a Solar Exalt who is trying to save the world.  His Villains are numerous: Slavery (social injustice), Corrupt Gods (pride, greed), the Wyld Hunt (social injustice), the Neverborn (wrath), Deathlords (greed, wrath), Demons and Yozies (wrath), the Underworld (environment), individuals (envy, greed, lust, pride) The Realm (greed, envy, pride).  Truthfully most of the environment is not a problem for him because he is powerful, but then there are secondary villains, the villains of his allies: god allies have villains who are driven by envy and pride, mortal allies have villains who are driven by all of them and including the environment, Bertrod his mortal lover has more deadly enemies because of power differences from Fae who seek her out for lust or because they wish to hurt Nameless (wrath).  Because he is powerful and very mobile, his enemies will seek out his more vulnerable intimacies and seek to control him with threats to them.  The Nameless's biggest villain is the Deathlord Black Sun, a ghost of unparalleled strength and power who was his the former incarnation of his soul (pride, envy, greed, wrath, social justice, cause poverty, environment and personal struggles).  What is more the Black Sun has a very large and wide reach with many allies and potentially many Death Knights as well.  He has pull and he is extremely manipulative of his mentally weaker and prideful peers– the other Deathlords.  The Black Sun is aware of the Nameless and knows that he is his greatest threat and so is working to corrupt and side line the Nameless as quickly as possible; in the least he seeks to use him to destroy his enemies.  So the question is, is he an ally or a foe?

'Smallville' the television series, starts off with a bunch of main characters, Clark Kent destined to be SuperMan, Lex Luthor destined to be the Super Villain, and a bunch of supporting characters.  Everyone knows who the bad guy is going to be and who is the hero as soon as they tune into the show, but if you did not know anything about the story arc, just looking at what is presented in the first two seasons, you would see a different thing.  Clark Kent is a hero, but he is secretive and betrays his friends confidence often.  Lex Luthor tries hard to be a good person but the pride of Clark Kent, the lust and wrath is driving a wedge between him constantly.  Clark lies to him and these lies are driving wedges between him and e other characters especially Lex Luthor.  At one point in the series, Lex states clearly that whoever stands up to a super powered alien coming to this world, using only his mortal powers against immortal powers, that he is the true hero.  He is right.  Clark Kent is the hero of the story, but he creates his most potent villains himself.

I know now what I have to do in my Story with my friend.  The Nameless must meet the agents of the Black Sun and the first Death Knights of his enemy's rivals.